small amount of non-nitrogenous matter consumed, the food consisted in a large proportion of the highly nitrogenous codfish; and in both of these cases we had not only a very good proportion of increase to food consumed, but the pigs in these pens were very fat and well ripened; and hence a large proportion of their increase would be real dry substance. • This result is in itself interesting, and it may perhaps point to a comparatively greater efficiency in the already animalized proteine compounds supplied in the codfish than in those derived, as in the other cases, from the purely vegetable diets.”* Other European experience. 321. In 1856 Professor Stoeckhardt, of Tharand, Saxony, who was one of the first chemists to recognize the value of fish guano, and has done more than any other one in Europe to encourage its manufacture and use, received a sample from Norway, which, as he says, "looked so inviting that I tried it for fodder also." He fed it to a half-year-old pig, which "did exceptionally well on this northern food." In the northern part of Norway, when during the long winters the supply of hay and straw gives out, cattle are fed upon dried fish. They do poorly on this diet alone, of course, but recover very quickly when the spring pasturage comes. Success of Maine farmers in feeding fish to sheep. 322. The value of fish as food for domestic animals has been attested by experience of intelligent farmers in our own country, as is illustrated by the following extracts from Boardman and Atkins' report, from which so many quotations have already been made: "As early as 1864, if not in fact previous to that date, the attention of members of the board of agriculture [of Maine], and farmers generally, was called to the matter of the value of fish pomace or scrap as a feeding stuff for sheep, swine, and poultry. In a communication to the board Mr. William D. Dana, of Perry, spoke in high terms of its value as a feed for domestic animals, in which he said: 'Fish pomace, or the residuum of herring after the oil is pressed out, is greedily eaten by sheep, swine, and fowl; and probably pogy chum would be eaten as well. Smoked alewives and frost fish also furnish a food palatable to cattle. Sheep thrive well, get fat, and yield heavier fleeces when fed on this pomace than when fed on anything else produced in this section of the State. Careful and observing farmers, who have fed it, assert that it is of equal value with good hay, ton per ton, and that its value for manure is in no degree diminished by passing it through the living mill, and thus reducing it to a much more convenient state for applying. If it could be sufficiently dried, without other substances, to prevent putre * Jour. Roy. Ag. Soc., 1st Ser. XIV, 1853, p. 527. Meinert. Travels in Norway. Chem. Ack., 1870, xi, p. 45. faction, it would form a valuable article of cattle-feed in regions from which it is now excluded by the expense of transportation and its own odoriferous nature.' "In remarking upon this the secretary of the board said that if sheep would eat the scrap readily, much poor hay or straw could be used to good advantage, thus allowing the farmer to consume all his first-quality hay in keeping other stock. He thought the meat would not taste of the flavor imparted by the scrap, provided other food was substituted for a proper length of time before slaughtering. "From time to time following this, the matter was discussed before the board, and formed the subject of many articles in the agricultural journals. In 1869, Mr. M. L. Wilder, of Pembroke, then a member of the board, presented a brief paper embodying his experience in the use of scrap as a feed for sheep, in which he said he believed 'fish offal to be not only cheaper, but much superior to any other kind of provender he had ever used' for this purpose. An extract from his paper is given: 'I keep about one hundred sheep, and have fed fish offal to them for the past ten years. The offal is made from herring caught in weirs, salted the same as for smoking, cooked, and the oil pressed out, leaving a pomace for which the sheep are more eager than for grain. For the last three winters I have kept my sheep on threshed straw with onehalf pound per day to each sheep of dried fish pomace, or one pound of green (as it shrinks one-half in drying), and they came out in the spring in much better condition than when fed on good English hay with corn. I consider the dry pomace worth as much as corn, pound for pound. When I have had enough to give them one-half pound per day, I have found that the weight of the fleece was increased one-quarter, and not only that but also the carcass in a like proportion; the weight of the fleeces per head averaging from five to seven pounds.' ' "Similar statements to the above were made by Hon. Samuel Wassont and other gentlemen, not only at public meetings of the board, but through the press, so that the subject has been kept alive and invested with some interest down to the present time. Experiments of Professor Farrington on fish scrap vs. corn meal as food for sheep. "323. Wishing to test the value of scrap as a feed with more care than had apparently attended any of the trials that had been reported, and also wishing to make a sort of competitive trial of it in connection with corn, a quantity was obtained for this purpose of Mr. M. L. Wilder, of Pembroke. It was herring scrap, salted before the oil was expressed, and packed in barrels directly from the press, each barrel containing about 220 pounds. Its cost in Augusta, including freight from Pembroke via Portland, was not far from $2 per barrel. *Agriculture of Maine, 1869, p. 60. † Agriculture of Maine, 1874–75, p. 1. "This scrap was placed in the hands of Mr. J. R. Farrington, the inStructor in agriculture at the State College, Orono, with the request that he would feed it to sheep in connection with Indian corn in such way as would best serve the purpose of ascertaining its comparative value as a provender or feed. Few instructions were given him, and he being left to carry out the experiment in his own way-and public ac knowledgment should here be made for his interest in undertaking the matter, and for the care and faithfulness with which the experiment was conducted. The report of Mr. Farrington follows: "The statement made by a prominent agriculturist that for feeding sheep fish chum was equal to corn, pound for pound, furnished the basis for the experiment which we conducted to ascertain the comparative value of corn and fish chum when fed to sheep. Ten lambs, dropped the previous spring, were selected; each one was designated by a number, the number being stamped on a metallic tag and attached by a copper wire to the ear of the lamb; Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 constituted flock 1; Nos. 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, flock 2. We began feeding January 15, 1875. Flock No. 1 was fed with corn; flock No. 2 was fed with fish. Each flock was given what good hay it would eat. The hay fed to each flock during the month (four weeks) beginning February 13 was weighed. Flock No. 1 ate, in four weeks, 335 pounds; flock No. 2 ate 338 pounds. "At commencement of feeding, January 15, 1875: During the above four weeks the corn-fed flock, weighing 340 pounds, ate 335 pounds of hay and lost 19 pounds in weight. The flock eating fish, weighing 338 pounds, ate 338 pounds hay and lost 14 pounds. Daring four weeks ending April 9, 19 pounds corn | During four weeks ending April 9, 19 pounds of were fed flock No. 1. At this datefish were fed flock No. 2. At this dateSheep No. 1 weighed 51 lbs., a gain of lbs. Sheep No. 6 weighed.. 62 lbs., a gain of 6 lbs. 2 3 .... 1 761 7 84 Recapitulation.-During the sixteen weeks of the experiment Flock No. 1 gained.. 7 13 8 10 9 66 14 " 10 48" Flock No. 2 gained.... On fish-weighing, January 15, 316 Fed with corn-weighing, January 15, 313 pounds. Gained 48 pounds, or 15 per cent. That is to say, the corn-fed flock gained 48 pounds, and the fish-fed flock 47 pounds during the sixteen weeks of the experiment. Professor Farrington has courteously favored me with some further, but as yet unpublished, details of his experiments. The fish scrap from herring was unground and some of the fragments were rather coarse. It was hard to get the sheep to eat much of the fish, though they gradually learned to like it better. This accounts for the very small quantity consumed. A second trial similar to the above was made the succeeding winter, and with like results, except that the sheep ate rather more of the fish. In one case a flock of four consumed 28 pounds in four weeks, which is equivalent to 4 ounces per head per day, while in the above series they averaged only about 2 ounces per head per day. The meal was regu lated by the amount of fish consumed. The quantities of both were thus extremely small. It is to be noted, however, that the sheep had "all the good hay they would eat." The fish was distasteful, and they took very little. If they had received a fixed quantity of staw, cornstalks, or poor hay, instead of good hay ad libitum, they could doubtless have been got to eat more fish, and would probably have learned to like it. Mr. Wilder, of Pembroke, whose statements were quoted above, and who furnished the scrap for Professor Farrington's experiments, "keeps about one hundred sheep on threshed straw with one-half for which *, and they pound per day to each sheep of dried fish pomace the sheep are more eager than they are for grain ⚫ come out in the spring much better than when fed on good English hay with corn." Professor Farrington agrees with me in the opinion, indeed the experi ence of farmers who have fed fish successfully leaves room for no other, and the European experimenters quoted below say the same thing, that sheep, swine, and probably neat cattle, can be taught to eat fish, and when once wonted to it will take it with excellent relish. A dry, well-prepared, and finely-ground product, such as may be made by the Goodale or other processes, would doubtless keep better, be more free from offensive odor and taste, and worth much more for feeding than the ordinary scrap. European experiments on digestion and nutritive value of fish, meat-scrap, etc. 324. The need and value of nitrogenous foods for food mixtures, explained and attested by science and confirmed by experience in Europe, has led to diligent seeking, careful trial, and rational use of available foods from every source. Of late a great deal of attention has been paid to animal products. The flesh meal left from the preparation of "Liebig's Meat Extract "in South America, the dried blood of slaughter-houses, and fish guano have all been tested and found extremely valuable. The scope of the present article precludes details of the experiments on the digestibility and nutritive value of animal foods for stock; I therefore reserve them for a future occasion, and note briefly here some of the main results. The following are among the experiments of this sort reported in the years 1876 and 1877. The original accounts are in "Die landwirthschaftlichen Versuchs-Stationen," the "Journal für Landwirthschaft," and the "Landwirthschaftliche Jahrbücher" for those years: The general plan of each of these experiments was to feed the animals during different periods of two or three weeks each with different foods and mixtures, and to note, by careful weighings and analyses of foods and excrements, the amounts digested. The most prominent of the questions has been the comparative digestibility and nutritive value of vegetable and animal albuminoids. As a general result the albuminoids and fats of meat, blood, and fish are found to be as digestible or more so than those of the most concentrated vegetable foods. In I, Wolff found swine to digest from albuminoids 92 parts and fats 97 parts out of every 100 parts of each in the flesh meal, and concludes that flesh meal is an easily digested and intensely nutritious food. In II, Wolff found that the albuminoids in pease and fleshmeal had essentially the same effect. From III, Wildt found some difficulty in getting sheep to eat the blood and flesh. He says that potatoes and roots will help to make the flesh and blood palatable, and thinks that these may be used with profit to supply albumin oids to herbivorous animals. From IV, Wildt concludes that animal albuminoids may serve just as well as vegetable for supplying nitrogen to foods poor in albuminoids. From V and VI, Weiske and Kellner conclude that fish guano, like meat and blood, may be fed with profit to herbivorous animals. In Kellner's experiment two two-year old wethers were fed during the first period with Lucern hay. During the second part the hay was replaced by |